


Unspoken

by BoBear



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, The Horde don't know how to talk about feelings, The Horde don't know what kissing is, Useless Lesbians, catradora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 21:37:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16961934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoBear/pseuds/BoBear
Summary: Catra finds Adora's secret journal while snooping around one night.





	Unspoken

The sun is setting over Brightmoon as Catra watches the castle from afar. Her tail is wrapped around the tree trunk next to her, as she stares intently at the window above.

She comes here sometimes in attempts to garner information, and to keep an eye out for any good opportunity to steal the Sword of Protection.

Also, simply as an excuse to get away from her more boring duties back with the Horde, but that fact is best kept to herself.

The reality is, Catra has spent more than enough time here over these last few weeks to start seeing patterns in their activity, and if she was right, then any second now…

A small poof of sparkles erupts in Adora’s room, as Glimmer appears just within Catra’s line of sight. “Adooooooora, dinner’s up!” She seems as happy as ever.

The door to Adora’s room crashes open, as a loud voice cracks, “We’re having donuts for desert!” Bow, excitable over nothing as per usual.

And as suddenly as all that noise happens, it’s gone, leaving Catra alone in silence. She rolls her eyes at their childishness as she leaps between branches to get to the ground, swiftly and with grace. As she approaches the castle wall, she can’t help but be filled with bitterness over the situation. Here Adora was, enjoying friendship and donuts, while she was left with only ration bars as company.

Scaling the wall had become second nature to her, so getting lost in thought while she climbs is easy enough to do. In fact, that talk about donuts _has_ made her a little hungry, so with her tail she pulls out her favourite kind of ration bar, the grey one, not the brown, and starts munching on that as she climbs, the crumbs falling into the darkness beneath her. It is a bit of a height, so by the time Catra slips through the window, her bar is just about finished.

Alright, she has about twenty minutes to get out of here safely before Adora comes back. Down to business.

Catra scans the room, which never ceases to piss her off, by the way. It’s huge! And Adora gets it all to herself. It’s just too much space for one person. It must get terribly lonely in here too for Adora, all by herself… but Catra isn’t going to think about that. She needs to focus.

For the most part, everything is kept tidy. Adora is nothing if not strategic, and that includes in the placement of all her belongings. It’s probably a habit left over from the Horde, things wouldn’t go well if you left your possessions scattered. This is excellent for Catra, as it means she can always spot something out of place.

Sadly, however, it doesn’t look like the sword is anywhere to be seen. It’s not all that surprising, Adora isn’t stupid, she probably has it with her. In all the times Catra has come here, she’s never found it. Still, it’s disappointing. Another night wasted…

Just as Catra turns around to head back out, something catches her eye. A book, half tucked under the pillow on her bed. Filled with focused curiosity, Catra drops the ration bar from her tail and wanders over to the bed. Picking it up, she immediately recognises it to be a diary, one magically locked with a spoken passphrase. Scorpia has one, but Catra never expected to find one here.

A devilish smirk slides across Catra’s face, as she wonders about all the hidden treasures she may find within this book. Perhaps secret weaknesses of the Princess Rebellion? Or blackmail material? Or the location of the Sword of Protection? There’s just one issue… she doesn’t know the password.

“For the honour of Grayskull,” She whispers, trying out the phrase. Wow, she thought Adora looked stupid saying that, but it _feels_ stupid to say. And all for nothing, the book doesn’t open at Catra’s tug.

“Greyskull.” She says the word alone, hesitantly. Was it even worth trying? Nope, nothing.

Catra knows Adora is more intelligent than that, but she was just hoping it would be easy for once. Oh well. But what else could it be?

“Princess Alliance?” The book doesn’t budge. “Fuck the Horde?”

Maybe it’s not a political thing, or a She-Ra thing. Maybe it’s an Adora thing.

“Bow and Glimmer.” She tries. Nothing. “Glimmer and Bow.” As frustrated as she’s getting, at least it doesn’t look like it’s anything to do with her bratty new friends.

Suddenly, Catra has a stupid, ridiculous idea. One that she absolutely does not want to try. “Catra?”

As she says the name, the book glows a dull purple. Catra opens the book to the front cover, now with a mixture of emotions. Triumph? Definitely, but it’s dampened by a whole onset of new, unidentified feelings. Damn it, Adora is certainly an expert at ruining things even when she’s not around.

 

_Entry One:_

_Glimmer gave me this book today. She told me I should use it to get my feelings out, cause I’m not super good at that whole ‘opening up’ thing. Especially when it comes to stuff about the Horde. I think it worries her a little bit, the small pieces I have told her, and the way I freeze up a bit when she presses for details. And I guess I do have a lot of… Feelings I need to untangle._

_So, whatever, I’ll give this a shot. I know I can talk to Glimmer and Bow about a lot of stuff, but there are some things best kept to myself, especially about Catra. I don’t think they could ever understand her and I._

 

Catra leans back, apparently having leaned in as she was reading with such interest.

This is absolutely fantastic. Even if it may be more about feelings than information, this will at the very least be an amusing read. And blackmail opportunities? Those will certainly be bountiful.

“Alright, tell me Adora, how have things been going?” Catra purrs. Tail swaying, Catra flips to a random page and begins to read.

 

_Entry Seven:_

_Holy wow. A lot has happened these last few days. A LOT. Princess prom, Bow and Glimmer’s kidnapping, Entrapta’s death… It’s all a little overwhelming really. So much important stuff to think about._

_So why. The fuck. Can I not stop thinking about Catra and her stupid, perfect smirk? That suit? And the dancing? What’s wrong with me? Glimmer is in so much pain with her glitching, the Rebellion is broken, and everyone is freaking miserable, but I can’t stop thinking about how my stomach twisted and my heart exploded when Catra dipped me? What kind of friend am I?_

_I really don’t know what to make of this. These weird feelings I’ve been having about her since the prom. She’s the enemy. She kidnapped my friends. But there’s something there that only seems to happen with us, an electricity I can’t ignore. Or maybe it’s just Catra’s mind tricks?_  
_Whatever it is, I can’t seem to shake it. And I fear it._

 

Catra stares at the pages with a slack jawed expression, as if the pages had grown a hand and slapped her. She wants to be amused by this, she wants to grin and take the diary with her to laugh about later, but something makes her freeze.

She reads the words again, getting stuck on the part about Adora’s feelings when Catra dipped her. While Catra doesn’t like to admit it, even to herself, she knows why this has her dazed. It’s because she feels exactly the same way. Catra may suppress those feelings, push them down with hate and rage, but she knows she has them. She feels the exact same electricity Adora had referred to, and feels her own stomach tying itself up in knots. She just… pretends that it’s more of the same old hatred. But this is putting things into perspective that Catra is not prepared for.

Suddenly, she doesn’t want to read any more. She knows exactly what will happen if she reads the following pages. If that’s how Adora felt about her during prom, the next pages would only bring heartache.

There’s a bang outside the door, and a patter of footsteps.

Damn it, Catra had been so absorbed in the diary that she’d completely forgotten where she was. She absolutely cannot get caught here. She leaps into the shadows in the far corner of the room and hopes that Adora will be quick to fall asleep.

“Night Adora!” Glimmer and Bow sing, as the door opens and Adora slips inside, shutting the door behind her again.

Adora has a faint smile on her lips, illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window as she walks over to her bed. She has the sword on her back, and for a split second, Catra thinks she may get her chance to steal it tonight. However, just as Adora is about to sit down, her face turns pale and she freezes, staring at something.

For a moment, Catra is confused. She looks over and sees a small glint of moonlight reflect off of something on the ground. The ration bar wrapper. Damn it.

Adora swings around, sword now in hand as her eyes dart around the room. “Catra?”

Before Adora can feel like she has caught her out, Catra decides to pretend that this was her plan all along.

“Hey, Adora.” She smirks as she emerges from the shadows, hands behind her back innocently. “Big rooms like this have lots of places to hide, don’t think about that too much as you try to sleep.”

Adora looks furious, her face is red, teeth gritted, and muscles bulging, but never twitching, under the weight of her sword. The knots in Catra’s stomach that she has been suppressing for so long suddenly feel much more difficult to manage after her recent acknowledgement of them, she almost has to kick herself in order to remain cool.

“What are you doing here, Catra?” Adora glares, trying to cut her ex-best friend with her eyes.

“Oh, you know, just catching up on some reading.” Catra brings out the book, licks a fingertip and flips through a few pages. “I do love a good drama series.”

Watching Adora’s face drain of colour, and her stance weaken, sends such a strange mixture of pleasure and guilt through Catra. This is what she lives for, isn’t it? Watching her enemy realise just how much power Catra has over them?

Catra laughs, sounding as genuine as ever despite everything. “Oh, here’s my favourite part.” She clears her throat, and reads the words out in a mocking tone, “So why. The fuck. Can I not stop thinking about Catra and her stupid, perfect smirk? That suit? And the dan-“

“Please stop.” Adora croaks desperately.

“Wow Adora, I never knew you had these feelings for me! I’m flattered, really.” Catra smirks, closing the book and putting it down on a nearby dresser. Her tail swaying playfully.

She takes a few steps forward, until they stand just a foot apart. Adora lowers her sword, her body betraying her. She has already lost this fight. Adora’s blush can be felt, radiating even at this distance, on Catra’s own face, her pounding heartbeat audible, and the electricity… sparking, was hard to ignore. Catra feels it too, she has just walked into her own trap.

“OK, you’ve made your point. What’s your plan now, attack me? Steal the sword? Blackmail me with this information?” Despite the clear humiliation on her face, Adora refuses to break eye contact with Catra. And for some reason, this fact makes Catra’s mind go blank.

She doesn’t have much time to think about her next step, no. But that shouldn’t matter, she’s made plenty of things up on the fly that have gone well for her. Plus, Adora literally just gave her three excellent options to choose from. But for some reason, it’s like she’s gotten trapped by some sort of mind-melting magic.

 _Insult her,_ Catra tells herself, _attack her, trace your tail across her cheek and then leave._

“I feel the same way.” Catra whispers, not so much admitting her feelings to Adora as she was admitting them to herself.

It suddenly strikes Catra what she has just done, and she immediately shakes her head in an attempt to shake off the feelings. That’s not what she had intended to say at all.  
Adora’s shoulders relax as she stares at Catra, slowly processing what she’d just heard. She lets out a laugh. “That was definitely not what I was expecting.”

Catra makes a hard turn and goes into defensive mode, her tail dropping and her ears flattening.

“Well, uh, been fun seeing you.” She rushes the words in a panic, close to darting out the window, but Adora grabs her arm. Catra flinches.

“Wait, you were being serious?” Adora studies the other girl. “Cause if you were, maybe we should talk about it?”

Catra dreads the thought. “Talk about it? We don’t need to talk. We both get these weird feelings around each other, but that’s it. Doesn’t need to mean anything. We can just continue trying to kill each other.”

Adora lowers her hand to meet Catra’s. “Don’t you want to know what those feelings are though? What it could all mean?”

Catra grits her teeth in an attempt to look aggressive, but her eyes just can’t meet Adora’s stare. It is so intense it is like she was gazing into Catra’s soul. It makes her feel so… vulnerable. And vulnerable is not something she’s familiar with. “What do you mean?”

“Like… if the feelings we’re having is some side effect of our drawn-out battle. Maybe it’s our hurt feelings? Or maybe it’s something else.”

“Right… Well, how do we figure out which one it is?”

“I have a theory.” Adora says, stepping a little closer. She sheathes her sword and raises her now free hand to gently cradle Catra’s cheek. Their faces are close, closer than they had been even during the dance.

What happens next is pure science. Catra feels the magnetism and can’t resist Adora’s pull. She doesn’t have a clue what she’s doing, but her lips lead the way. As the two connect, it’s like lightning strikes them, the energy coursing through them, electrifying Catra.

Catra’s tail wraps around the other girl, her hand grasping at Adora’s shirt, drawing her closer.

She could stay this way forever, but it soon becomes evident that Catra has completely forgotten to breathe, and she pulls back with a deep gasp of air.

Opening her eyes, she sees a blushing Adora straightening up her jacket.

“Uh, what was that?” Catra asks after regaining some sort of composure.

“It’s called a kiss. Glimmer and Bow told me about them. It’s something that’s supposed to feel really good when people are in love.” Adora shifts awkwardly, rubbing her arms.

Catra nods slowly, still a little shocked, “I guess we should have that talk then.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey friends, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> This is actually my first fanfic, I'm way more used to writing scripts so this is a huge format change, but I enjoyed it so I think there will be more to come. 
> 
> Let me know what you think in the comments!


End file.
